I've always thought the way that babies learn language is amazing. It's almost miraculous. All of a sudden, babies start talking. My mom always tells me how annoying I was when I was two years old. I would fight with her constantly, now that I could speak. Apparently, babies just acquire language by listening to the people around them speak. I guess that's why adults are careful about what they say around their children.
Having taken French in high school and feeling like I can't speak a word of French still, I regret not learning French earlier. (Although my French skills probably are related to my lack of study more.)
It's a known fact that we learn languages more quickly when we're young. The scientific reason behind this is that when we're born, we have billions of brain cells, millions of which control language. These cells start to connect with each other and form complex pathways, and by the time we're ten years old, our brain has settled into our first language.
A recent study by a University of Pennsylvania psychologist has found that babies under 18 months old actively interpret the phonetic characteristics of their languages when learning new words. Apparently, when we're born, we are geniuses. We can differentiate all the slightly different sounds of all the languages in the world. However, as we acquire our native language, we lose the ability to discriminate non-native sounds and instead focus on becoming better at our own language. This makes sense, obviously. However, this is the reason that Japanese(and Korean also) adults cannot differentiate the English "r" and "l" sounds. Because there is no difference in these sounds in their languages. This leads to the mishaps of spelling we saw on the first day of class, like the "rocker room" and the "flesh juice."
Have you ever noticed the way people's speech change when they talk to babies? Apparently, there's even a name for this, "parentese." Usually, we call this "baby talk." According to research, this helps the babies learn language better. The exaggerations and other distortions of speech we use help the infants learn the key features of sounds. The repetition of words also strengthen language connections in the baby's brain. Babies' brains are like a sponge, just soaking in the words and sounds. Quoting Lila Gleitman of the University of Pennsylvania, "For the first three years, you can't go wrong, unless you lock them in a dark closet."
Babies also start to predict what sounds will come next by using the pattern of sounds within words to distinguish the ends of words. Babies "pay attention to sounds that cohere within words, compared to the less predictive sounds that change as they span a word boundary," according to Psychologist Richard Aslin of the University of Rochester. For example, take the phrase "pretty baby." When babies hear the first syllable of "pretty" (prih), they know that a sound like "tee" will follow rather than a sound like "gond" or "bay."
After researching this topic, I find even more amazing what we were capable of when we were babies. So if we're all language geniuses as infants, why don't we just learn as many languages as we can when we're young? It seems like the smart thing to do. In fact, one of the sites I researched ("Building Baby's Brain: Learning Language), recommends that parents start teaching multiple languages early. I partly agree with them because of my experience. My parents didn't have to spend tons of money on me so that I could learn English, nor am I a non-Korean-speaking-Korean (I speak Korean fluently--that phrase was kind of confusing, I know). However, I have heard that learning another language when you haven't even yet fully acquired your native language can negatively affect your ability to learn your first language. Unfortunately, I haven't researched this topic today and will leave it for a future post. And even if that is true, babies are still geniuses, in my opinion.
Links I used for this post:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071001172817.htm
http://whyfiles.org/058language/baby_talk.html
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/277/5326/641
http://www.fcs.uga.edu/pubs/current/FACS01-6.html
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3 comments:
Nice post! There is somewhat of a tension in the way you describe babies, though: they are active geniuses that can distinguish and learn many languages, but they are just passive sponges that absorb words from the environment... there is a lot of research suggesting that babies are not just passive sponges soaking up their native language automatically, but that they really are actively seeking out patterns in the speech stream and learning through engaged social interactions with caregivers ("parentese" games run both ways!). Imagine an interaction you've had with a baby... can you think of any active actions the baby has done that makes it seem like they are actively engaged in learning language???
That's really interesting, and I agree with you on the teaching of multiple languages at a young age. I was tought Serbian by my parents as a child, but they stopped when I was four. But then, in 10th grade, when I took classes to relearn Serbian, the basic words and how to string them together came to me pretty easily, and I was able to prounounce all the sounds (including hard ones like 'dj' or 'zh' with a good accent). So I think you're right about babies being geniuses.
Steve - I haven't really interacted with babies enough to notice any active actions on the babies' part, but I do think they aren't just passive sponges. Maybe I didn't word it right in my post, but I think that they can soak up so much--like a sponge--but also do process what they're taking in in their brains. Because as it says in the article I read, babies differentiate what sounds they need and don't, so there must be active activity going on. I just don't recall seeing it for myself. Maybe I'll get a chance as I work in the Baby Lab here at Stanford.
Nikola - Yeah, I think pronunciation is especially developed in the younger ages. I have seen many friends who have benefited from just living even about half a year in America when they were young.
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